The objectives of this paper are twofold: first, to report our estimates of the meter‐to‐decameter‐scale topography and slopes of candidate landing sites for the Phoenix mission, based on analysis of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images with a typical pixel scale of 3 m and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) images at 0.3 m pixel⁻¹ and, second, to document in detail the geometric calibration, software, and procedures on which the photogrammetric analysis of HiRISE data is based. A combination of optical design modeling, laboratory observations, star images, and Mars images form the basis for software in the U.S. Geological Survey Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS) 3 system that corrects the images for a variety of distortions with single‐pixel or subpixel accuracy. Corrected images are analyzed in the commercial photogrammetric software SOCET SET (® BAE Systems), yielding digital topographic models (DTMs) with a grid spacing of 1 m (3–4 pixels) that require minimal interactive editing. Photoclinometry yields DTMs with single‐pixel grid spacing. Slopes from MOC and HiRISE are comparable throughout the latitude zone of interest and compare favorably with those where past missions have landed successfully; only the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) B site in Meridiani Planum is smoother. MOC results at multiple locations have root‐mean‐square (RMS) bidirectional slopes of 0.8–4.5° at baselines of 3–10 m. HiRISE stereopairs (one per final candidate site and one in the former site) yield 1.8–2.8° slopes at 1‐m baseline. Slopes at 1 m from photoclinometry are also in the range 2–3° after correction for image blur. Slopes exceeding the 16° Phoenix safety limit are extremely rare.

Geologic Map of the Northern Plains of Mars

The nucleus of the Jupiter-family comet 19P/Borrelly was closely observed by the Miniature Integrated Camera and Spectrometer aboard the Deep Space 1 spacecraft on 22 September 2001. The 8-kilometer-long body is highly variegated on a scale of 200 meters, exhibiting large albedo variations (0.01 to 0.03) and complex geologic relationships. Short-wavelength infrared spectra (1.3 to 2.6 micrometers) show a slope toward the red and a hot, dry surface (≤345 kelvin, with no trace of water ice or hydrated minerals), consistent with ∼10% or less of the surface actively sublimating. Borrelly's coma exhibits two types of dust features: fans and highly collimated jets. At encounter, the near-nucleus coma was dominated by a prominent dust jet that resolved into at least three smaller jets emanating from a broad basin in the middle of the nucleus. Because the major dust jet remained fixed in orientation, it is evidently aligned near the rotation axis of the nucleus.